Shinobi of Ice
by InsaneLocoFangirl
Summary: Toshiro is sent to the Elemental Nation to protect Naruto on the Soul King's orders. Unfortunately, they send him a few years before Naruto is born and accidentally causes major repercussions.
1. Minato and the Village of Konohagakure

**Shinobi of Ice Chapter 1**

 **Disclamer: I do not own Bleach or Naruto or any characters mentioned in this fanfiction**

"Talking"

" _Thinking_ "

" **Demon Talking"**

" _ **Demon Thinking"**_

0ooo0o0o0o0o0 – Time Skip/Author's Note

Toshiro Hitsugaya was horribly tired, stressed, and emotionally hurt, and to tie it all up, he was being called to the Soutaicho's quarters. He had just been doing some paperwork after getting yelled at by his friend, Ichigo, and had gotten into a big fight about something stupid. Not to mention that he'd been doing paperwork and interviewing people and watching over spars for the past week without rest. It was unfortunate that he also knew he probably would never be able to make up with the big idiot too, as people notoriously went missing after being called to their leader's house in the middle of the night. Not to mention it was almost time for graduation in the Shinigami academy, and that called for added stress on the whole division, but most namely the captain of the division, with paperwork and choices swirling around him in one big mess. It wouldn't be good if a captain disappeared, especially for the tenth division, who'd had a rough century and was already being spread thin with all the hollow attacks.

This meant that when the tenth division captain walked into the room, he was already annoyed and even more grumpy than usual. Opening his eyes after yawning, Toshiro found himself alone in a room with only the soutaicho sitting in his chair. The old man had his eyes closed like usual and had his cane leaning against the front of his chair.

"I'm glad you could make it, Hitsugaya. I know it's been rough with graduation coming up and the increased paperwork. I'm sorry to say that I will be adding even more stress onto your division's back," the old man paused to take a deep breath. "You are being assigned on a mission to take care of a boy by the name of Naruto Uzumaki. Unfortunately, you have no choice in the matter, for this is a mission of utmost importance and a direct order from the Soul King himself."

Toshiro blinked once, sighed, and then muttered, "I understand…"

The Soutaicho then cleared his throat and proceeded, "You will be gone as long as you are needed. Naruto Uzumaki will be treated horribly and will be hurt. Currently he is not even born yet as we are sending you four years till he is born where you will have a chance to integrate into society. It is up to you to raise him and keep him from being harmed. You will have to become a shinobi -the military of the place you are going to- to have any say in what happens to Naruto. You will not be told why he needs to be protected by you specifically or someone of such high rank. Starting now, no questions will be answered; you have two hours to show up here again bearing new clothing and supplies. Other supplies will be provided for you once you arrive here again. Only tell your lieutenant and name a temporary captain. Now, go!"

In a flash, Toshiro was out of the building and shunpoing over to his division, the only thought on his mind was of how Rangiku was going to take it. Rangiku was asleep when he got to the division only a minute later, and he decided he would leave a note. He found some casual human clothes and put them on, even putting on some leather boots. After grabbing some supplies and putting them in a messenger bag, Toshiro slung it over his shoulder along with Hyorinmaru. He stood in front of his office door one last time and then opened it, taking a piece of paper and the bottle of sake that had been given to him by the soutaicho when he became captain and wrote down, 'Congratulations on becoming Temporary Captain, Rangiku! I know you can become an actual Captain if you try hard enough. Sincerely, Toshiro Hitsugaya.' After writing it down, he gave one last glance and headed over to the soutaicho's.

A few minutes later, he was standing in the middle of the room. After being handed another bag with supplies in it, Toshiro entered a swirling black portal of death.

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Toshiro found himself standing in front of a large open gate where two guards stood in between them, blocking his path. Beyond that was a landscape of buildings and a large cliff, where three faces had been carved into the cliff. It was a magnificent scenery and it was surrounded by a tall wall which in turn was surrounded by a dense forest that was so big he couldn't see the end of it.

"Who are you and what business do you have in Konohagakure?" One of the guards asked, his black hair coming up wildly in a halo around his head.

"Uh…" Toshiro hesitated.

"Come on, give him a break! He's just a kid!" The other guard yelled at his teammate.

"This is war! Anybody could be the enemy!" Said the more aggressive of the two.

At his comment, Toshiro looked down and realized he was so much younger than he should've been and said in a pretend meek voice, "My mommy and my daddy were killed… and-and my uncle sent me here so that I could get away! Please don't make me go!"

" _I can't believe that I have to act like this…"_ Toshiro inwardly scowled.

The friendlier one saw that the little boy was about to cry and once the tears started falling, he rushed over and picked him up as he tried to calm him down. They took his sword away and tried to ask him his name, although he just kept crying. It irked the proud captain to have to act like such a child, but he had had to do this before and he was remarkably good at acting. Even the more aggressive one softened up and apologized for acting so mean, talking like he was talking to a child -he kind of was- and then they went to their station.

After a few minutes they walked out of 'earshot' of him and left him playing with a bobblehead on the desk. While the captain silently seethed and listened, the two talked.

"What do we do, Gen? We have to take him to the Hokage but we can't leave our posts!" The kinder one said in a worried tone.

"Yeah, I know… Maybe a shadow clone?" Gen asked, scratching the back of his head.

Deadpanning, the unnamed guy just said, "You know both of us are too exhausted to do that!"

"Do what?" A new voice asked.

Toshiro restrained himself from looking at the newcomer, but still heard Gen speak, "A shadow clone! This kid just appeared with a gigantic sword and two bags and he said his parents died and he was sent here to escape from the war."

After they moved a little further away and out of actual earshot, they came back a few minutes later and once they were close, Toshiro looked up. The newcomer was a tall man with medium length spiky blond hair wearing blue clothing under a dark green flak vest. A headband was tied around his forehead with a weird swirly symbol etched in the metal part of it, and he had sandals strapped to his feet, along with having pouches scattered across his person.

The man knelt to be at eye contact with Toshiro, who looked at his cerulean eyes, "My name is Namikaze Minato! Nice to meet you! What's your name?"

Minato seemed friendly enough and the 'child' really had no choice so he said, "My name is Hitsugaya Toshiro! It's nice to meet you too, Minato-san!"

"Well, Shiro-chan, want to go someplace with me so you can go off and explore?" Minato smiled warmly but Toshiro was irked about the nickname he'd just been given but kept up the act.

"Yeah!" The captain yelled excitedly.

After creating some sort of doppelganger and had them hold his things, Minato picked up Toshiro piggy back style and they ran across rooftops, which forced Toshiro to whoop and yell out in excitement as that was what a child would do.

A few minutes later they slipped through a window of a large red painted building and walked into a spacious half indoor half outdoor balcony like space. There were five table in a sort of semi circle with four younger looking people on the outer table, while the center table was seated by an older man wearing white and red robes. Minato's doppleganger stayed outside of the room and once they stood in front of the man, he put down Toshiro.

"Ah… Minato, who have you got there?" Toshiro genuinely smiled at the old man, as he hed smiled kindly at him and got out of his seat.

As the old man knelt in front of the captain, he asked, "Well, what's your name?"

"I'm Toshiro! Nice to meet you ojiisan!" Toshiro said happily as his hair was ruffled.

The man laughed, "Nice to meet you Toshiro-chan! My name is Hiruzen Sarutobi but you can keep calling me ojiisan if you want!"

After a slight hand twitch, a boy came through the door and Sarutobi said, "How about you go with Karu-san for a little while Minato and I talk, huh?"

Toshiro nodded and then walked out the door with Karu. The boy was good natured and he liked to tell jokes. He had straight brown hair that went to his shoulder and he wore a dark green vest similar to the one Minato had been wearing, but wore black clothes under the vest instead of dark blue. A little passed before the doppelganger went inside the room and didn't come out. While simultaneously keeping up the whole child act, he examined his surroundings and connected the pieces of information in his head about this world.

Clearly, the old man named Sarutobi was the leader of the village and people respected him a lot; he didn't rule on fear as he acted kindly when he saw him as a small boy. Another thing, this world was currently in a big war that would merit thinking children where enemies, although it appeared that it was an unpopular opinion. Pointing that out though, Toshiro guessed that he had been turned into a kid of six years and was drastically shorter than he had been when he had the appearance of a ten year old. He could only guess that he would age normally as he felt that his reiatsu had switched into something else similar to it but still different. Not to mention that Hyornimaru's voice was always very faint, when it had always been a roar in his head before. Although it worried him, he knew it had to be ignored for now as he had other things to worry about.

Sighing internally, Toshiro snapped his head in the direction of the office, where two people were coming out. Sarutobi and Minato had come out with the younger of the two now carrying his things instead of his doppleganger. Karu got up and bowed formally although he still had a goofy smile on his face, and he was dismissed.

Minato knelt in front of the 'child', "Since you don't have anywhere else to stay… how would you like to stay with me for a while?"

Toshiro's eyes lit up at the opportunity, "I'd love that!"

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 **This is just an idea I had one day and got bored so I decided to post this. I'm almost finished with a new Sake Induced Dream Chapter so that should be out soon. If you didn't realize, this is set after the Blood War with the Quincy's and four years before Naruto is born and the Nine Tails attack, and Toshiro had the appearance of a twenty year old like how he did when he used his Bankai. This is just for fun so it isn't as refined as some of my newer works and it might be a little clunky.**


	2. Three New Comrades

**Shinobi of Ice Chapter 2**

 **Disclamer: I do not own Bleach or Naruto or any characters mentioned in this fanfiction**

"Talking"

" _Thinking_ "

" **Demon Talking"**

" _ **Demon Thinking"**_

0ooo0o0o0o0o0 – Time Skip/Author's Note

"Shiro-chan! Breakfast's ready!" Somebody yelled from downstairs.

Toshiro sat up and then slid his legs over the side of his bed and dropped down onto the floor. His book fell onto the floor and after glancing at it, he decided to leave it there. He stretched and then yawned, walking out of his room and walking slowly down the stairs.

"Ah, there you are," Minato smiled at him as he took off his apron and sat down at the counter where two plates were loaded with food.

Toshiro smiled at him and then scrambled up the tall chair on his own and then said, "Hello, Minato-san."

The adult ruffled his white hair and then the two were eating furiously, only pausing to take breaths.

"So," the Jounin took another bite. "I hear that after a week in the academy… you might graduate today."

Toshiro blinked in surprise but showed no other sign of how he felt, "Yeah? That's super cool!"

"I'll be contacted if you do so I'll be there, kay?" Minato smiled at him with a mouth full of food.

"Minato-san! Don't talk with your mouth full, it's gross!" Toshiro said, swallowing down a bit of egg.

Minato only laughed and continued to eat. A few minutes later, Toshiro was walking to the academy with what people assumed was his father, although that only resulted in a goofy smiles from Minato, but never a denial. The ex-captain was totally fine with it, Minato was very much like a father, and it was clear that the Jounin saw himself that way. After they parted ways, he mulled over the past few weeks.

Since he had arrived, he found himself staying with Minato, who continued to be charming and smile a lot. It was good that he had a place to stay, but it also made it harder to become a shinobi, as Minato was protective of the 'child'. Only when he 'accidentally' discovered a ninjutsu book and created three perfect clones of himself, and then showed him his skills with his sword (after shrinking Hyourinmaru down to two feet long) did his 'father' start thinking about sending him to the academy. It took a week of convincing, but it was worth it to get integrated in that sort of life when it was necessary to protect somebody who hadn't even been born. Which led him today, where he supposedly was going to graduate. It was just in time too, because the Chunin exams were coming up in a few weeks and he needed to prove he was ready if he was going to even have to opportunity to become a Chunin. It might be a problem if he was placed with incompetents though.

Toshiro sat in his seat in the front of the classroom only to be called into another classroom a few minutes later. He found himself in a room with the Hokage smiling at him, a stern looking teacher, Karu, and Minato.

"Hi ojiisan! Hi Minato-san! Hi Karu-san! Hi… sensei!" Toshiro said excitedly as he waved to them all. He truly didn't know the teacher's name, but him just saying sensei seemed to irk him.

"Hello there, Shiro-chan. Do you mind creating five shadow clones?" The Hokage smiled sweetly.

Toshiro blinked and then frowned, "Can I do more?"

"If you can," the teacher scowled.

The ex-captain and soon to be genin just grinned and performed the hand signs for the jutsu and a rather large cloud of smoke appeared. After it cleared, sixteen identical grinning children stood looking at the group. They all looked extremely surprised, but everyone except for the stern teacher grinned afterward.

"Good, good! Now, defeat Hario by using taijutsu only," the Hokage said, soon after whispering something to the teacher now named Hario and the man stood up and walked over to the small boy.

He towered over Toshiro by about three feet and after showing signs of respect, the two eased into fighting stances. The ex-captain dropped his smile and stared intensely at his opponent. He was clearly strong, but he was a little angry about being addressed only as teacher earlier. Toshiro was the first to strike, launching toward him at Jounin speeds (he held back quite a bit) and ducked under the man's slow and surprised swing, launching himself off the ground a few feet, the heel of his hand colliding with his chin. Hario's head snapped up and he stumbled back a little bit. Instinctively, Toshiro cocked his leg up as high as his child body would allow him to, and kicked him in the ribs. Granted, he'd been going through flexibility, strength, and endurance exercises so he could be what he used to be, so he could kick pretty high. It was only due to the fact that he was short and the man was tall that he only hit him in the ribs. A second later, Hario collided with the wall and slid down it like a sack of potatoes.

Sensing he was unconscious, Toshiro bowed and said, "It was nice fighting you."

The Hokage and the other two were laughing hysterically, and after a few minutes, the Hokage got up, holding something behind his back, and walked up to the slightly confused Toshiro.

"Ojiisan, that man was a Chunin, right?" He asked, tilting his head.

Another burst of laughter came from the conscious group and through laughs, the Hokage managed to say, "Yes, he was!"

Calmed down again, Sarutobi stood in front of the 'child' and he smiled as held out a headband, "Congratulations Toshiro! You've just become a genin!"

Toshiro grinned and after taking the headband into his hand, he hugged the Hokage and then hugged the other two. Minato ruffled his hair and whispered a congratulations, while Karu smiled and almost squeezed the life out of the smaller boy. After that, the Hokage tied his headband around his forehead, patted his head, and then they took a picture of all five of them, even Hario, who woke up in good spirits afterward. When they'd finished the photo, they took a picture of just Toshiro for the ninja registration and then the Hokage spoke.

"We currently do not have any genin teams missing a member available. However, we believe that it would be wrong to make you wait for your classmates to graduate, which could take years, and will have you join Minato's current students. The students are Kakashi Hatake, a prodigy like yourself, Obito Uchiha, whose clan has a kekkei genkai, and a Medic Ninja by the name of Rin Nohara," the Hokage said, smiling.

"You mean I get to train with Minato-san and he's now my sensei?" Toshiro asked, a small but genuine smile spreading across his face.

"Yup!" Minato said, once again ruffling his hair.

The genin thanked the Hokage and then yelled, "Yay!"

Toshiro was reading while doing the splits when Minato walked into his room at 6 in the morning, "Hey, Shiro-chan. We're going to go get ramen for breakfast and today is your first day with the team. We have to be there in an hour!"

Minato wasn't even really surprised as he saw how flexible the 'child' could be and then helped his 'son' up, glancing at his book, "Fire Jutsu, huh? I can help you practice them some time."

Toshiro smiled and then said, "I'd like that, Minato-san."

The slightly sleepy genin then got dressed, wearing black pants, a white T-Shirt, a dark blue jacket lined with red, dark blue sandals, the usual ninja pouches, and his headband across his forehead. After walking into the living room, he found Minato sitting on his favorite chair. When he came in, Minato smiled and got up, the two walking out of the apartment together toward breakfast.

They went to the usual place they went to for Ramen, Ichiraku Ramen. Toshiro was friends with Ichiraku's son, Teuchi, and they hung when they could, usually staring at the clouds in thought. When they arrived, nobody but the owner, Yansu, and his son were there. Teuchi smiled and waved at the two while his father prepared their usuals.

Once they sat down, Yansu slid over their usuals and Minato asked, "How's Ayame, Teuchi-san?"

"Oh, she's just an angel, I can't believe I was blessed with such a child," Teuchi said, smiling.

Minato smiled and then starting eating as Toshiro made small talk with his friend and then started eating soon after. A few minutes later, two piles of stacked bowls sat on the counter along with a wad of ryo bills, the customers long gone. The two customers sat on the First Hokage's head, making small talk and occasionally singing. Once it was 6:30, they got up and walked over to the meeting spot, which was a training ground surrounded by a dense forest and had three logs next to each other in the clearing. The memorial stone was able to be seen from the training ground, and served as a reminder to train harder.

No one was there, or so it seemed. When they arrived, both of them sensed two chakra signatures in the trees. Toshiro sat down against the middle log and kept his head down, doing an excellent showing of pretending to fall asleep. Minato leaned against the rightmost log and yawned, waiting for the first to come from the trees, Kakashi.

After ten minutes, one chakra signature moved away and five minutes later a silver haired boy wearing a mask covering up half his face walked across the bridge and into the training ground. He had a short sword strapped across his back and wore black clothes along with arm guards and two brown straps going across his chest. He cast a questioning glance at Toshiro and then sat against a tree. Ten minutes later, the other chakra signature disappeared and a few seconds later a girl with brown hair and kind brown eyes walked into the training ground. She wore a long sleeved black shirt, black shorts with a white half apron tied around her waist, reddish knee high socks, and blue sandals. The girl sat against the leftmost log and glanced at Toshiro a few times. Fifteen minutes later, or rather fifteen minutes late, a young boy with spiky black hair and a Konoha headband tied around his head ran into the training ground. While he was trying to breath, the silver haired kid yelled at him that he was late. He wore dark blue clothing with a white belt, orange tinted goggles across his eyes, and a dark blue jacket lined with orange, although the collar was completely orange.

"Sorr- Wait, who the hell is that?" The boy interrupted himself as he pointed at Toshiro.

The one in question opened his eyes and just said, "I could ask you the same thing."

The boy blinked and then pointed at himself with his thumb, exclaiming, "My name is Uchiha Obito! I'm going to become the next Hokage! Now, who are you?"

Minato clapped as he stopped leaning on the log and then said with excitement, "Alright, everyone meet Hitsugaya Toshiro! He's going to be our temporary teammate until another genin team is available for him! Toshiro, this is Kakashi and this is Rin!"

Kakashi, the silver haired one, just grunted while the girl, Rin, congratulated him on graduating. Toshiro smiled and thanked her, glancing at Obito, who seemed miffed that he had graduated so young.

"Alright! Today we'll be sparring with each other, and today I'll be observing matches. Rin, you'll be sparring against Obito, and Toshiro will spar against Kakashi!" Minato said excitedly, surprising everyone else but Toshiro.

Kakashi spoke for the first time, "With all due respect, Minato-sensei, Toshiro-san just graduated from the academy and I graduated top of my class, not to mention I'm five years older than him!"

Minato glanced at Toshiro, who no longer had a smile on his face and was looking over at Kakashi, "I think you'll be surprised."

Kakashi frowned and then cast a glare at the impassive Toshiro, walked a little away, and then got into a fighting stance. Rin and Obito glanced worriedly as the younger boy walked away too and then they went to their respective location, but not far enough so they couldn't see what was going on. After Toshiro took a deep breath and loosely made his hands go flat into palms and everybody got into fighting stances, Minato told them to only use Taijutsu and shouted "Go!"

The older boy propelled himself forward with such power that a small cloud of dust appeared where he used to be. It was clear in his eyes that he wanted to end the fight quickly. His fist was pulled back, ready to punch. When his fist launched toward his opponent, he was within a foot of Toshiro, and that was when he smirked and then caught Kakashi's fist easily. Eyes widened, Kakashi pulled his body forward and kicked attempted to kick off of Toshiro's torso. He twisted out of the way though and used Kakashi's momentum to carry his chest straight into his palm. A few seconds later he was breathless and was slammed on the ground hard, knocking more air out of his lungs. Kakashi regained his senses quickly and kicked out at Toshiro's legs. He jumped and pulled his legs up to avoid the kick and when he landed Kakashi was crouched and had already launched another kick at his legs. While he was still in the air, his feet collided with Toshiro's and he was flipped into a 180 degree angle. Kakashi was standing up and had launched a roundhouse kick at Toshiro. The one in the air twisted so the Kakashi's foot was just above his stomach and he grabbed his leg, using it to throw him Kakashi twenty three feet and consequently propel himself toward the ground. He rolled to absorb the impact and then launched himself at his opponent, who was still getting up.

Kakashi noticed the smaller boy coming and panicked slightly and then threw a punch with his right hand at Toshiro's face. The boy side stepped, but also grabbed his right wrist and chopped hard at Kakashi's neck, hooking his right foot under Kakashi's own right foot (from Kakashi's perspective) and then pulled at his arm. The result was immediate, with Kakashi's own momentum pulling himself forward but due to Toshiro's foot, he twisted and landed on his back, forcing Toshiro onto a knee and with his hand still on his wrist, he punched at Kakashi's face. The older boy blinked in surprise when the fist stopped a little before his face.

The victor got up and then offered a hand to the loser, who grabbed his hand and was pulled onto his feet. The two then intertwined fingers to show respect and that the battle was done, and after Kakashi sat against a tree wondering what had just happened and Toshiro took off his coat to dust it off as he watched Rin and Obito spar. They seemed distracted and Obito looked absolutely delighted, although Rin had a simple smile on her face. The two were decent in both speed and technique, although Rin seemed to have a strategy while Obito seemed to be going on instinct and his own distinct fighting style, which was erratic and unpredictable.

In the end, Obito won only because Rin ran out of stamina, although it was clear that if they had fought a little longer then Rin would have one, and Minato whispered to Toshiro that it often ended this way, although Rin's stamina had improved over the past two years. The 'child' just nodded after putting on his jacket and then congratulating Obito on his win.

"Nevermind all that! You defeat Kakashi, the Kakashi! No one except Jounin's and above have done that, especially not a fresh genin!" Obito exclaimed, ignoring Minato's advice while Rin nodded sagely.

"Yeah, I'm really surprised, Kakashi always wins," Rin said, still nodding.

"Guys!" Minato yelled to get their attention, and after he got it, he started lecturing the two on what they did right and what they did wrong.

While he was doing so, Kakashi walked over to Toshiro and said, "I'm impressed, but next time you won't beat me. I'll make sure of it."

Kakashi arrogantly swaggered off, leaving the 'younger' boy with a bad taste in his mouth. A few minutes later, Minato sent Rin and Obito off on a small break and walked over to Kakashi, saying something and then he walked over to Toshiro.  
"Nice job on defeating Kakashi. Your form was -I think- perfect to your style and you were very composed. I'm impressed at your speed and strength," Minato grinned and then lowered his voice. "But just between us, I think he needed somebody to knock him down a few pegs on the ego scale. He's always very arrogant and powerful, so he's always sort of treated everyone like they're lower than him. It's caused quite a few alterations between him and Obito."

Toshiro smiled despite the fact that he still was a little uncertain of Kakashi, and was sent away for a five minute break. In those five minutes, Obito talked nonstop about how cool it was how Kakashi was defeated by him and how he was so powerful. Toshiro just smiled and tried to add in his own words, although he was drowned out by the ecstatic Uchiha.

After the break, they had time to work on individual things like developing a new jutsu, working on chakra control, strength training, or working on their style. Kakashi went into a deep part of the forest while Obito worked on his aim with Kunai and Shuriken while Rin practiced healing injured animals she found in the woods. Toshiro was a little uncertain of what to do so he called over Minato and asked him to teach him the Fire Jutsu he'd been talking about that morning. His sensei grinned in response and then led him into the forest and into a large but not too big clearing.

"Alright, watch closely…" Minato purposefully slowed his hands down so that Toshiro could see what he had to do, and when he was done, he breathed in deeply and when he opened his mouth to exhale, a great ball of flame came from his mouth.

He grinned at the slightly surprised Toshiro and said, "That's Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique. I know you'll be able to figure it out although it is Chunin level. It's commonly used by the Uchiha and can come in the form of a continuous flame or a giant ball of flame. I'm going to go check on the others but if you need help, just call."

Once Minato left, Toshiro took a deep breath and then performed the hand signs slowly at first, and then speed up to the point that even a Kage would only see a blur of hands. After speeding up his hand signs, he did it again and then inhaled quickly and then opened his mouth to exhale. When he did, a gigantic ball of flame five feet in diameter appeared and shot into the sky. It lasted for a while before it disappeared. Toshiro gave a small smile and then did it again, this time trying to create a continuous steam. He did the next time, and lasted for six minutes before he ran out of breath and had to stop. His chakra was only slightly drained, so he continued. At the end of the training when Minato called for him, his constant stream was so hot it was blue and his ball was twenty feet in diameter.

They then showed off what they learned, Rin healing a deer, Obito hitting the target all times but only getting a bullseye six times, Kakashi's arm glowed a brilliant blue and lightning crackled around it, sounding like birds chirping until Kakashi looked strained and stopped his jutsu. Minato was impressed that even as a Chunin, he was making new jutsu, and then it was Toshiro's turn. He stepped away from all of them, looking at the sky, and then did the hand signs at Jounin speed, breathed in deeply, and then exhaled, a ball fifteen feet in diameter going off until it was out of sight. Obito looked absolutely mystified that his clan Jutsu was being done at Jounin levels by a Genin, Rin had her mouth open for so long Minato made a joke about it, and Kakashi very clearly had wide eyes and looked extremely surprised. Minato only cracked a smile and ruffled his hair, declaring that for today's hard work, they would get ramen for dinner. It was sunset by the time they actually arrived at Ichiraku, but Yansu and Teuchi didn't seem to mind a bit and had already prepared everybody's usual. The whole team apparently seemed to go to the establishment often and the only one who really experimented was Obito, although he seemed to have settled for some sort of pork cutlet bowl.


	3. A Test of Intellegence and of Survival

**Shinobi of Ice Chapter 3**

 **Disclamer: I do not own Bleach or Naruto or any characters mentioned in this fanfiction**

"Talking"

" _Thinking_ "

" **Demon Talking"**

" _ **Demon Thinking"**_

0ooo0o0o0o0o0 – Time Skip/Author's Note

" _Every person has a chakra affinity… one of the ways to find out what your chakra affinity is to use a special paper that reacts to chakra being circulated through it in different ways according to what the chakra affinity is. If the affinity is fire, it ignites and turns to ash. If the affinity is wind, it will be split in half. If the affinity is lighting, it will wrinkle. If the affinity is earth, it will turn to dirt and crumble away. If the affinity is water, it will become damp… The chakra affinity of each person is what style of jutsu will be able to be used by the person but it is possible through dedication and training for people to use other styles of jutsu. Only very few people can use all five chakra affinities… The paper cannot be used to see if a person has a Kekkei Genkai although it is possible to find out if you locate a sealing master."_ Toshiro put down the book and then stared at the ceiling. It was useful to know and all, but he didn't know where to find the paper anyway, not to mention he could already do Fire Style, -which he was pretty sure it wasn't his chakra affinity- but he wanted to know what he would be best at.

The ex-captain then sat up suddenly and slipped off of his bed, walking out of his room, calling out, "Minato-san, where are you?"

"I'm in my room, Shiro-chan!" Minato's voice came from the left of him.

Toshiro changed his direction to the left and walked into his 'father's' room where he found Minato looking over stacks of paper at his desk, "What's up?"

The 'child' stood on one foot with his other foot on his ankle and said, "I was wondering if you had or knew where to find chakra affinity paper."

Minato smiled and then opened a drawer, taking out a few small index card sized pieces of paper, "Here."

Muttering a thank you, he took the papers, told Minato he was going out, and then walked out of the house without his jacket. Holding one of the papers between his index and middle finger as he walked, he took a deep breath and channeled some chakra into the paper. A few minutes later when he had arrived at the training area he had first met his team a week ago, the paper had pretty much dissolved in his hand because it had been so wet. He tried the rest of them until they were all gone and was completely sure that his chakra affinity was water.

 _Now what?_ Toshiro sighed and then watched a leaf fall out of a tree and flutter to the ground. _Wait, I'm pretty sure that the book said something about what sort of training to do afterward and it had to do with leaves… Oh, right, "Once a person knows their chakra affinity, instead of just trying to start off doing jutsu, they can cup a leaf between their palms and circulate chakra in it and try to make it react the same way the paper did. This will be more difficult because the paper was hyperactive and the leaf is ordinary, so once the leaf reacts instantly to the chakra affinity like the paper, the person is on their way to mastering their affinity."_

Remembering, Toshiro grabbed a leaf and squished it between his palms and started circulating chakra through it. After a few minutes, he opened his palms and found that only the stem of the leaf was even slightly wet. In annoyance, the ex-captain squished the leaf again and then poured more chakra in it. He stood like that for a good thirty minutes before he opened his hands again, finding that the whole leaf was wet, but only a few parts of it were soaking. Dropping the leaf, he summoned some shadow clones and made them do the exercise with him, and continued doing so until Minato came and found him at sunset.

Walking home, Toshiro sensed Minato glancing at him every so often and without looking at him, asked, "Is there something you need, Minato-san?"

"Uh, well… um," caught off guard, the Jounin panicked. "The Chunin exam is coming up and… I was wondering if you were ready for it and all... So…"

Inwardly, the ex-captain smirked but outwardly he looked at Minato and asked, "What's the Chunin exams?"

A few seconds passed before Minato responded, "Well, um, it's the exams that genin's need to take to become Chunins, the next level of shinobi. It's pretty tough so many people never pass it and a lot of time people die."

Toshiro's felt genuinely upset and he frowned, "Die, huh? _All for some stupid test to get to the next rank?_ "

Minato seemed to think he made a mistake and said quickly, "Which is why I want to make sure you're ready, although if you're not-"

"No! I need to become a Chunin as fast as possible!" Fiercely, the genin and soon to be chunin glared at his 'father'.

Surprised at the reaction, Minato didn't say anything for a few minutes, "I understand."

For the rest of the walk, neither of them said anything and the Jounin kept thinking about what had just happened. It was very, very rare for Toshiro to ever get defensive or angry, and generally was happy or impassive. Only when he was focused on learning something or on defeating someone, did his eyes narrow into something akin to a glare. Even then, it was more of a look of determination and dedication, nothing else but focus. Sighing, Minato decided to put aside how strange his 'son' was, and focused on walking.

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"So, Rin and Obito, you remember the Chunin Exams, yes?" Minato asked, his hands hidden behind his back as if he was hiding something.

Rin's eyes lighted up in understanding while Obito just kicked at the dirt mumbling something with a scowl on his face, Kakashi just blinked and then walked away, and Toshiro watched the already Chunin boy go away from the group.

"Well, it's that time of the year again with the Chunin Exams coming up, and I think you're all qualified to go!" Minato grinned, holding out three pieces of paper.

"Yata! I'm gonna' become a Chunin!" Obito yelled, jumping into the air and snatching one of the papers.

Rin just smiled and grabbed a piece of paper while Toshiro looked knowingly at his teacher and grabbed a piece of paper, "Alright, you have the rest of the day and the rest of the time till the Chunin Exams -which is in five days- so that you can train although you can come find me if you need any help."

Obito just yelled out in delight and ran from the training area while Rin walked up to Minato and started asking some questions. Toshiro looked around for Kakashi, but found that he had left during when Minato had been talking to them and he grunted. Walking away from the area, he found a tree, summoned trees, and started training.

At the end of day two, and three days till the Chunin Exams, Toshiro could wet the leaf so that it broke apart and was disgustingly soggy after fifteen minutes, and decided that he would have to leave it there and train later. The next day, Toshiro did endurance, strength, and flexibility exercises for the first half, and the second half, he practiced Jutsu that Minato had taught him and that he had read about. The last day before the Chunin Exams, he rested and read books and let himself rest from the training he'd done the past four days.

The day of the Chunin Exams, he met up with Rin and Obito at the memorial stone and they all sweared a pledge to become a chunin this year. They walked together up to the academy together and were then all assigned different classrooms. Toshiro found himself on the second floor on the right in the back, which was far from any exits or entrances. Glancing around the room a few times, he saw that Konoha genin filled the small room, all ranging from the common 13 to the rare 57. Most of them wore dark clothing, but there were a few who wore bright and obvious clothing like a boy dressed in all bright red.

A few minutes after arriving, a darkish tan skinned man wearing typical Jounin attire walked into the classroom, went to the front of the class, and then sat down lazily on a chair as he pulled out something from his pocket, waiting for people to notice him. Toshiro just glanced at the man and then rested his head on his arms and watched as people slowly noticed him.

Around fifteen minutes later, the room was silent and the man finally got up, staring coldly at the group, "Congratulations, you just gave an enemy ninja 15 minutes, 13 seconds, and 52 milliseconds to observe your group and slaughter you. In any time period when facing enemy ninja, especially now, all your throats would've been slashed. That's being generous though, because I walked in here and just sat down without trying to hide myself at all, and if an enemy ninja is hiding, then a lot of you would never notice them."

Even without seeing their faces, Toshiro could feel the hostility in the room, and he blinked slowly. _He said he didn't try to hide himself, but in truth all he did was hide in plain sight, walking in like he owned the place. Nobody would pay attention to him like him, although it appears a lot of people didn't seem to get that._ Taking a deep breath, he turned his attention back to the man.

"Now, you're all here for the Chunin Exams and not for me to lecture you on how to survive through the next month, so I won't bore you. This is the first trial of the Exams and it;s a written exam. Someone will now pass out the papers. You must write your name and your teammates names on the top right corner. No talking is permitted, if any talking is heard, you will be disqualified. Go ahead and cheat, it doesn't matter," with that, the man sat down and left many people with questions.

 _What does he mean? Usually something like cheating would result in immediate disqualification, but he just said that it didn't matter, so that has to mean either what we put on the paper doesn't count or we will gain nothing from cheating. Is it possible that we all have different questions? No, I think… we all got separated from our team so perhaps it has something to do with them._ Toshiro leaned back in his chair and waited for the paper to come.

When it did come, it had small text on it but the ex-captain couldn't read them because the words weren't words they were symbols, random, stupid symbols that made no sense even to his mind, except for the very few numbers hidden within the symbols. The hostility that had plagued the room before was now almost palpable and Toshiro glanced around warily as people crumpled up their papers in anger. Tapping his foot against the floor, he took a deep breath and for the first time since he had gotten to the Elemental Nations, he used Hyorinmaru's powers. Thin, clear ice crept along the floor to the door, went under it, and spread out toward his teammates classrooms. It crept up to their seats and attached itself to their legs and their hands.

Rin felt it immediately but refrained from immediately looking down and instead pretended she was looking at the paper but was actually looking at her leg and hands. She felt the coldness coming from them but knew it had to be something from one of her teammates, although Kekkai Genkai's involving ice were extremely rare. On the other hand, Obito didn't notice that it existed but only found his leg and hands cold and was confused.

It was only when a voice sounding like Toshiro said from nowhere, _Hello?_

Fighting the urge to scream or jump, Obito thought, _What the hell is going on?_

A second passed before another voice came, _Obito, is that you?_

Dumbly, he responded, _Yeah, that's me, Rin._

The voice that had spoken earlier spoke -or thought- again, _It's me, Toshiro. This is my Kekkei Genkai, obviously it involves ice and this is one of it's uses. I'm assuming we all got papers with things -words or symbols- on it?_

Before Obito could think about how cool that was, Rin came through, _Yeah, I got two papers with a bunch of lines on them with spaces in between a cluster of them, like words are supposed to go there. Well, I actually got three papers, and the other one is a bunch of symbols and numbers with what looks like English letters under them._

 _Me too, well, except I just got a bunch of words… but they don't make sense. Like, it says, 'Knee hooked and barfed grandma her, Janet.'_ Obito thought, looking at his own paper in confusion.

Nearly a minute passed before Toshiro said something, _I have a bunch of symbols and numbers like some sort of code and they seem to be in order. Wait, maybe your words are supposed to be rearranged sort of like, 'Grandma Janet hooked knee and her barfed.' Or something._

 _Oh I think I know! 'Grandma hooked Janet and her knee barfed!'_ Obito thought excitedly and like he thought he'd gotten it correct.

 _No, no! I think Toshiro-san was closer. I'm pretty sure it's supposed to be 'Grandma hooked her knee and barfed, Janet.' Like somebody's who's talking to somebody named Janet and is trying to tell her what happened._ Rin scolded.

 _That sounds correct, perhaps it goes one of the papers with the spaces and lines._ Toshiro thought, glancing around his room.

A few seconds later, Rin reported back, _Yeah, it fits in one of them but not the other…_

 _Rin, put your hands over the paper with the symbols and numbers on them._ The youngest ordered.

Without question, the kunoichi put her hands over the paper and kept them there. In another room, an image flooded through Toshiro's mind and he scratched some letters on the paper in correspondence to the symbols and letters and since he had studied English before, he read what it said. 'Pandora's box opened and out came all the horrible things of man like pride and lust and envy.'

Reporting back, Toshiro told Rin what letters for her to write and told them he thought the test was over now. Once they said their goodbyes, Toshiro's ice retreated from the hands and legs and from their classrooms and back to him where his reiatsu was absorbed back into his foot.

He looked across the room and with surprise, saw that some people were starting to figure it out and were writing down things, some people with the three papers like Rin and he managed to read what it said. All the papers said different things, but even so a few idiots with the three papers wrote down what other papers said, grinned, and then leaned back in their chair with their legs on the table as if they were smart. Inwardly, he smirked at their stupidity and closed his eyes, waiting for their time to run out.

Thirty minutes later, the man at the front of the class stood up and shouted, "Everybody stand up and put your pencils down!"

Doing so, Toshiro found himself the shortest in the room, and frowned as the man took his time looking at the papers, looking at the name for almost all of them and then he sat back down. A few minutes later, a ninja in a Chunin vest came into the room and whispered something to the man at the front, leaving a few seconds later.

The Jounin then stood up and simply said, "Overall, only 4 out of the 14 teams that applied for the Chunin exams have passed. That being said… I will now call out those whose team did pass. Watanabe, Toshiro, Ginko, and Yuma! The three of you will exit this room and immediately go to the academy classroom of 108. The rest of you will sit down!"

Ignoring the other three that had passed, Toshiro walked down from his place at the top of the class, avoiding tripping on a leg that had suddenly found itself in the isle, and then walked to classroom 108. Inside, he found Obito and Rin waiting for him and he sat at a table with them, watching the other three groups sitting together but away from any other group. A few minutes later a short woman came in looking rather uncomfortable.

Standing at the head of the class, the woman said nervously, "Uh… hello, my name is Ruki Iou. The next stage will start immediately after I talk to you all. Since so few teams have passed, the next stage will have two other teams of Jounin involved in the next stage. Um… usually new chunin will have to fight shinobi at the rank of Jounin or Anbu so that is why the other teams are Jounin and not Chunin. Go to the Forest of Death, or rather training ground 44 now!"

Squeaking out the last part, the woman disappeared -who Toshiro realized was actually an Anbu- and his team got up and they walked to the windows, slipping out them and walking to training ground 44. Once arriving at entrance 1, they were directed by a Chunin to a form, which they read and signed, and Obito was given a scroll with the word sky on it and was told to hide it. He hid it in the right inside pocket of his coat. It wasn't long before the other teams showed up and hid it as well, although they were all in separate tents and when they came out the scroll was nowhere to be seen.

Ruki appeared again at the first gate looking a little more composed, "Team Jiu, go to gate 35. Team Hikarui, go to gate 10. Team Musoe, go to gate 25. Team Minato, go to gate 45. You were already informed about this, but just to clarify, you are to get another scroll that is labeled differently than yours and once you do, go to the large building in the middle. Go!"

Team Minato shifted the left one gate while the other teams moved to their gates, and they caught sight of one of the Jounin teams. They were wearing typical Jounin attire and one of them wore a short sword across their back which was used by the anbu. Not long after they disappeared from view, the a horn sounded and the gates swung open. Rin and Obito immediately sprinted in, and after giving one last glance toward Ruki, he ran after them. The gate swung shut a few seconds later just around the time he caught up with his team, and they all slowed to a walk and tried to be quiet..

"All right, what's our first move?" Obito asked, glancing back at the two.

Rin thought for a second, "I think we should find someplace that can be our base close to the middle close to water and food -if we need to stay here for a long time- and then go track some of the other teams."

"I didn't see which scroll we had, so which one do we need to get?" Toshiro asked quietly, his right hand twitching in the anticipation of stealing one.

"Uh… we got…" Obito started, trying to remember. "...Sky?"

"No, we got Earth, Obito!" Rin hissed.

"Oh, uh, yeah," the genin scratched the back of his head sheepishly and then put his goggles over his eyes to hide his blush.

The ex-captain took a deep breath and then said, "We won't be able to run forever, and we don't know how big this place is, although by the fact that there are 44 gates with one next to the other so far apart you can't even see it, this place must be big. Not to mention that this place is called the Forest of Death so it must be dangerous. So, when the sun starts to go down, we should start looking for a place to rest."

Rin and Obito nodded firmly and none of them talked until sundown where they sat in a cave, with Rin at the front of the cave on look out.

"So… this the end of day one, but we're supposed to have like, a week right? So, I think it'll take us maybe a day to travel to the center if we're being cautious and walking, and maybe a day to track down another team, and then maybe a couple hours to find where the scroll is, and once we fight them, we can just go to the center and turn our scrolls in!" Obito exclaimed, taking a couple minutes in between sentences to figure things out.

"That sounds right," Rin said from the opening, not looking back at the two.

Toshiro inwardly frowned at the fact that he'd have to spend so much time in this place when he could've done it in a minute or two, "I agree… Who wants to take the first shift of night watch?"

Neither of the other two responded so Toshiro eventually just said, "I'll do it since I've got a lot of energy. You guys should go to bed soon."

Pushing off of his knees, the soon to be Chunin stood up and replaced Rin's position at the door. A few minutes later the sun was only a sliver in the sky and the other two tried to sleep on the bug infested rock floor. Hours later, Toshiro got up from the front of the door and walked silently toward the two, seeing their chakra signatures instead of their actual selves, and made sure they were asleep. Then he returned to the entrance and created two clones, both of them guarding the door while he went into the forest.


End file.
